


Pocket Gods

by bluepard



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Animals, Alternate Universe - Crack, Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Angst and Humor, Cat Loki, Crack, Crossover, Family, Family Secrets, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Lokitty, Pokeangst, Retelling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-16
Updated: 2013-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-25 18:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/641733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluepard/pseuds/bluepard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki's plan wasn't going too badly up until he found out why he's not an electric type like the rest of his family.</p><p>This is a retelling of the Thor movie (with elements of the comics) in an alternate universe where everyone is a Pokemon. The plot will deviate from the movie in the second chapter if I can actually come up with one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pocket Gods

The Electric Realm of Asgard was unsurprisingly golden, unsurprisingly high in the skies. Other types of friendly Pokemon made their homes here, they  were even the majority, but it was the electric royal family that was father to all, just as the sun was father to the earth.

Today the sun seemed to be shining on the golden halls with extra intensity to mark the day. Thor came into the hall grinning widely, his fangs glinting and his dark fur brushed to perfection. The crowd roared--in many cases literally--at the sight of their king-to-be. The golden hall reflected their images, and Thor's golden armor reflected the reflections, causing his helmet and back plating to dance with color.

His father watched his antics with his usual sedate lack of expression and without need for ceremonial garb. Odin's presence was ceremonial enough by itself. Thor wondered sometimes if the raikou even could smile or if his overlarge fangs prevented that.

Beside him, Frigga floated delicately, an indulgent smile on her face that more than made up for his father's impassiveness. Balder was smiling as well, positively beaming, and even Loki seemed to be letting his Ceremonial Expressionless Face drop for the occasion. Balder was in an incredibly garish outfit that Loki had no doubt picked out as a prank, made only the more out of place by Loki's own choice to wear strapping green leather over his pure white fur.

Thor was not nervous, no, that was not why he spotted each of his friends as he strode down the aisle. Fandral was ignoring him in favor of chatting up some bird and making suggestive gestures with his leek, to no one's surprise. Volstagg seemed to be asleep in the middle of a clearing made by people who did not want to be at hand when the snorlax woke up grumpy. Hogun was hard to spot, his skinny body standing stiff as a beanpole, his arms crossed, and his eyes sizing Thor up with the same expression he used when picking out cuts of meat. Sif at least was paying attention from her position of honor with the proper grace and restraint and a quick smile.

It took some time for the cheering to die down, partially because Thor kept encouraging it with grins and flicks of his tail and impish winks. But finally the luxray knelt down before his father, although the excitement made him want to do nothing more than chase the golden motes of light that flickered through the hall.

"Odinson," said his father, "You have evolved into your final form."

 _At last,_ Thor thought.

Somehow Balder had beaten him to evolving, something that had scored Thor's ego deeply. He had managed to be all smiles in Balder's presence, but the servants had found Thor's quarters shredded and destroyed. Fortunately they were too used to Thor's outbursts to mention it to his brother, and they simply replaced his furniture without a word.

Still, for Balder to beat him! To shine brighter! And him a sheep! A sheep who could trounce almost any Pokemon one could name, granted, but still just his gentle little brother. It was wrong to have to look up two feet to look him in the eye, even if Balder stood on two legs instead of four which was clearly cheating.

Thor pushed the thought aside. That was in the past. He was in his final form now, and it was he who would be king. He had waited what seemed like an eternity for this moment, an unbearable, teasing lure dangling before him until the point where he thought Odin might never relinquish the throne. He had waited his entire life for this, and finally he would be satisfied.

Odin droned on through the official pronouncements at his tortuously slow pace, making Thor want more than ever to chase someone's tail or sink his fangs into something's neck. If he would just hurry up ...

"My lord!"

The entirety of the hall turned to face the guard as if they were a single entity.

"Dark pokemon in the vaults!"

Odin did not hesitate. He simply swept past Thor, and Balder followed immediately after, in such a hurry he dropped to all fours for a moment. Thor stood struck frozen in place, still lost in his thoughts of his impending coronation, literally and figuratively brushed aside.

* * *

It surprised Loki not at all to find Thor raging in circles and Sif and the Warriors Three standing beside a table full of food the cooks had spent days on that now lay scattered across the floor. Thor was throwing one of his hissy fits, hissing quite literally in fact. Volstagg was trying to bend down and rescue the discarded food, a difficult task given his wide snorlax belly. Fandral was tapping his leek against his beak in an obvious sign of nervousness. Hogun and Sif surveyed their angry friend with almost identical non-expressions despite the fact that the fencer and the fan duelist looked otherwise nothing alike.

Loki tried not to smile even though no one had noticed him yet. He slunk into the room with all the feline grace Thor had somehow never managed to learn, suppressing a purr and ignoring Thor as he warned him off.

"If it's any consolation, I think you're right. About the dark Pokemon, about Laufey, about everything. If they were able to slip past Asgard's defenses once, who's to say they won't try again?"

"Exactly!"

Thor was so easy to provoke, it would have been painful if it weren't so satisfying.

_This is why he isn't ready, father._

How little it took for Thor to cast aside Asgard's truce and the king's decision when his own pride was at stake. He even admitted so. "My day of triumph" indeed. 

The trap set, Loki simply had to watch Thor trip into it. He was off to Jotunheim. Loki would slip out, play the concerned brother and alert Odin, and Thor would be dragged from the bifrost by his ear. 

"You are coming, aren't you?" said Thor. 

Loki almost lost his composure. "Of course, let me just find Balder and--"

"You know Balder would never come," Thor scoffed.

Loki knew, which was exactly why he had suggested it. The time it took to find Balder and argue the issue would give him time to signal Odin and prevent them from leaving. But of course Thor wouldn't make it that easy. Loki could refuse, but then Thor would expect him to go to Odin and would simply set out for Jotunheim unprepared, leaving Odin no time to catch him. 

Loki followed Thor into the armory to prepare for battle. Surely Heimdall would never let them go to Jotunheim.

* * *

That palkia was an idiot.

Perhaps Loki should have taken into account that it was Heimdall's sister asking. Still, wasn't this dereliction of duty? And wasn't he worried his sister would never come back? Loki was, and that was despite sneaking off a letter to Odin before they left.

The realm they had entered was permanently dark, its only light blue and frigid. Ice crunched beneath their paws, and their breath turned to puffs of white in the air. Loki would have held out hope that they would manage not to be noticed, and that Thor would cool off and return home, but every step Volstagg took left great divots in the ice. The sounds of its cracking echoed loudly off of the cliffs around them. One couldn't ask a snorlax for stealth any more than one could ask him to stop eating. It was only a matter of time.

"Awfully far from home, aren't you, Asgardian?"

The voice came seemingly from nowhere. The others spun around ineffectually, but one couldn't expect to see a dark pokemon in all this unless he wanted to be seen. Finally, after a few chuckles, a zoroark melted out of the darkness. How he had managed to hide his bright red mane Loki couldn't imagine.

He had no chance to speak; Thor was already putting his hammer through the figure. But it simply disappeared--an illusion, Loki realized. As the hammer returned to Thor's side dark Pokemon appeared from all around them. Loki wondered how many of them, if any, were also illusions.

Loki placed a restraining paw on Thor's shoulder. Thor jerked away.

"Go home, little princess," said the zoroark. He was behind them now.

"Thor--" said Loki, but Thor had already moved again, thrown his hammer again, and the dark Pokemon descended upon them. He learned very quickly that they weren't illusions.

Thor roared in grateful battle lust as the others stepped forward seamlessly. Hogun withdrew his arm blades and slashed his foes without hesitation while Fandral mirrored him with great sweeping whacks of his leek. Sif's schalchops flashed in her hands as she leapt upwards at the much larger foes. Volstagg sighed and swung his massive arms, smacking a Pokemon into a cliff so hard he disappeared into it.

Loki Leered to raise his defense, then quickly Feinted. Oh, that it had come to this. More and more dark Pokemon appeared at every moment, and probably would continue to do so. The only options were retreat (which Thor would never do) and taking down the leader, no doubt that zoroark who had first spoken. With a glance around Loki spotted him watching from above, grinning at the entertainment. Whether it was the real thing Loki couldn't tell. Still, he needed to end this.

 _Double Team for evasion,_ Loki told himself before jumping from cliff to cliff, _Future Sight for attack--_

Loki wasn't that surprised when he went through his target. He was ready for the attack that came from the side, had in fact planned on it. Now he knew where to strike as Future Sight kicked into effect.

The zoroark yeowled but rebounded, and the responding hit hurt. They traded blows one after another, and Loki began to feel horribly out of his league. It seemed more and more likely that he wasn't just fighting the leader of these particular Pokemon but someone more important, a general perhaps. In the background he could hear the sound of the others struggling, he could hear a squawk from Fandral that boded ill, and he was sure he would get no help from them.

Loki hissed, hackles rising. His father had told him that there were certain moves he must not use publicly, that they were special moves and that it was an advantage for no one to know that he could use them. But if he did not use them now, then when? They would not aid his corpse, and his only chance was something unexpected.

__

Sucker Punch.

It was a good move, Loki was sure of that even though he hadn't trained much with it. But the zoroark seemed unimpressed. He just continued striking back. Loki desperately stuck to his guns and pulled out secret move after secret move, but nothing seemed to dissuade his opponent.

Loki backed off and paused to catch his breath, wondering what else to try. The zoroark wasn't even using his illusions. Was he even taking this fight seriously?

The dark fox laughed. "I am Laufey, King of this dark realm. You think I don't know an absol's moveset?"

Loki tried to keep him talking to give himself time to think. "You have me mistaken. I am no such creature."

Solab, he was a solab. Rare, his father had said.

"No such creature?" Laufey repeated, "Do you take me for a fool? Perhaps you can't tell your fellows what you are lest they turn on you, but I know all there is to know about dark Pokemon."

Loki frowned. "You speak nonsense."

Laufey laughed again.

"What kind of moves do you think you were using, boy? Certainly not of the light."

Loki didn't reply because "special moves" suddenly sounded like an absurd thing to say.

"Tell me, then, what kind of creature do you think you are?" said Laufey. There was mockery in his voice.

"I am a normal type," Loki said. Under usual circumstances he would have hated to admit that, because it just seemed so common. The rest of his family was entirely special. His mother and father were legendaries, his brothers were both powerfully electric like their father--

"Why would a dark type have white fur?" Loki said before he could make the mistake of thinking about that any longer.

"Look around, boy, you are not the only dark type who isn't dark."

There was a long moment filled only with the sounds of distant battle. Loki searched for some reason for Laufey to lie to him, but it seemed entirely pointless when he was already winning. Still, there must be some trick--

Laufey's face softened slightly.

"I suppose I should not mock you for being taken in by someone else's lies. As a dark type you are my subject, and you are welcome to make your home here."

Loki jerked backwards. "You are just trying to take me as a hostage!"

"And what worth would you be as hostage?"

Loki did not know how to respond, but fortunately he did not have to. At that moment the skies split open, and Odin appeared rearing on his hind legs and casting around an electric aura of fury. Laufey immediately forgot Loki and leaped instead to confront the legendary lord.

"Odin." said Laufey, "You have broken our treaty."

"I am here only to collect my sons."

"Your sons have broached our borders, invaded our lands, and attacked my people without any provocation."

Odin did not look impressed. "Without any?"

Laufey grinned sharply. "Without much."

"We shall be leaving now, Laufey. Perhaps we shall discuss the matter another time."

Laufey's toothy smile faded.

"Yes. Another time."

* * * 

Fandral's wing was bleeding, and he was unable to fly, but otherwise they had escaped mostly unscathed except perhaps for Loki's psyche. Loki found himself wishing they'd been more injured because that at least would have distracted Thor from immediately picking a fight with Odin. Balder winced beside him as the shouting quickly escalated.

"You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy!" shouted Odin.

"And you are an old man and a fUGZZZNNGHHH!"

"Oh dear, you really ought to do something about all the static electricity in this place, Heimdall," said Balder with completely transparent pseudo-innocence as though he hadn't just blatantly electrocuted his brother. "Come, Thor, let's see how Fandral is doing."

"Let go of me!"

Balder bullied Thor out the door despite his protests and epithets. They might be the same height now, but Balder still had forty pounds on Thor and was just as stubborn in his quiet way. Odin watched silently. He looked as though he wanted to call them back and continue the shouting match until they screamed the bifrost bridge to rubble, but he let himself stew in his armor instead.

_Of course Odin would let Balder interfere. He'd never have listened to me._

But even that bitterness felt distant, overwhelmed by how lost he felt.

"Father ... "

Loki stopped. Father. His father was an electric type, just like Thor and Balder. Their mother was a psychic type. It wasn't that hard to assume, was it, that they had normal type ancestors somewhere that had led to Loki. Normal types were normal, after all. Loki was different from the rest of his family, but if anyone had ever asked him he'd have said that Balder was the odd brother. After all, Balder was a bipedal sheep while the rest of them were quadrupedal cats. Soon after Balder'd begun to crawl he'd pushed himself onto his wobbly little back legs and toddled through the rest of his life. Wasn't that far more strange?

But then Balder had always shone like the rest of them. Balder had shone more than any of them, his light visible from any distance when he wanted it to be. Loki was the opposite. Had always been the opposite. How had he never seen that the opposite of light was dark?

"You are not absolved of responsibility, Loki." said Odin.

Loki was startled. He'd almost forgotten they were in trouble. But that didn't matter, not even if Odin found out he was behind it all, that was unimportant now.

"That Pokemon ... Laufey ... he said I was dark." Loki looked down at the floor, not wanting to see Odin's reaction, unwilling to know if his reply would be a lie. "He said those special moves of mine were dark moves."

Odin didn't reply, and Loki was forced to look up. He only needed to see Odin's face to know the truth. Odin looked not solemn but sad. Sad and ever so old.

"Why didn't you tell me?" said Loki. His knees were weak, his vision swirling. The only thing that seemed real was Odin's disappointed face.

"You're my son. I wanted only to protect you from the truth."

"What, because I... I... I am the pocket monster parents tell their children about at night?"

"You are not darkrai, my boy ... "

Loki's tensing claws left marks in the floor. He felt as though he were floating, like his mind was rejecting the idea of being in this dark and sullied body any more.

White fur hiding dark blue skin. An illusion of purity with the truth underneath. Skin him, and his blood would flow black.

He was hyperventilating. He barely heard Odin speaking. His eyes were focused on some space between where nothing could be seen, a mote in the sun perhaps, glinting at him with its jeering brightness.

"You know, it all makes sense now, why you favored Thor and Balder all these years, because no matter how much you claim to love me, you could never have a dark type sitting on the throne of Asgard! "

Loki shouted it, shouted it without regard for the fact that Heimdall was still standing there or for the fact that someone might be coming to visit the bifrost. He breathed deep to get his breath back but there was no reply. When Loki finally turned to his father again, he found Heimdall crouched over him.

 _Not dead,_ he told his addled mind. _The Odinsleep._

"Guards! Guards, help!"

As the guards charged in, Loki watched over the still form of Odin with horror. He had seen Odin in his Sleep before, but always in dignity, always in his great golden bed. Slumped on the floor like this the legendary Pokemon seemed like a slain beast more than a king. Had Loki done this? Had he pushed Odin too far by upsetting his plans, by forcing him to Jotunheim, by screaming murder at him?

By being dark?

* * *

Loki soon found himself with one paw over Odin's much more massive one. On the opposite side of the bed Frigga was mirroring the action.

"He kept the truth from you so you would never feel different. You are our son, Loki, and we your family."

Loki did not know how to respond to that. He had always felt closest to his mother, but right now he was distracted by comparing the cresselia physically to himself. She didn't even have the same number of limbs as the rest of them. She had always been an otherworldly creature. But she too had crescents crowning her head, like Loki. And Odin was a great cat, like Loki. How could he have known? Yet it seemed so obvious now. Perhaps he had just really wanted to believe he was special, that he had secret moves, to mask how badly he failed to fit in--

Thor burst into the room, Balder an afterthought behind him, and he took a moment to regard their father. He looked guilty. Perhaps he was also wondering if they had strained Odin too far.

"He will be well?" said Thor.

"Yes."

Thor nodded, obviously still uncomfortable. He never knew how to act when Odin was vulnerable.

"Who will be king?" said Thor.

 _To the point,_ thought Loki. _Well, I know who it won't be. Not me. Never me._

"I will rule," said Frigga, "Just like the other times."

"But I am of age now," said Thor, tail swishing. It was obvious he was still riled up from the fight with his father.

Frigga shook her head. "You have not been sworn in, Thor. In matters of politics everything must be done correctly, publicly and above-board. He should only be asleep a week ... a month perhaps. You will have your coronation later."

Thor wrinkled his nose and paced a circle. Loki suppressed the impulse to smack him as he walked by.

__

Lost your little toy empire, have you? I have lost everything.

Still, at least Frigga had denied him the throne. It was a risk, a possible declaration that Thor wasn't ready--he wasn't--but she must have thought that the closeness of the coronation's timing would make it clear this was just a matter of formality.

Loki must have been openly scowling because Balder was watching him now. One more thing he didn't need.

Balder turned his attention from Loki to Thor. "Brother, you just need someone to take your mind off of it. Set yourself a quest that will last a few weeks, and by the time you return you'll be ready to be crowned."

Thor huffed out reflexively at the suggestion, but after a moment he stopped pacing and stalked off, no doubt to find Sif and the Warriors Three.

When Loki looked away from Thor, Balder was looking at him again. Loki repressed his annoyance and left the bed so that they could speak alone.

"Are you all right?" said Balder.

"How ever could I be anything but after such glorious success?" said Loki with his most sarcastic tone of voice. Sarcasm didn't work on Balder at all, but it made him feel better to try.

"You know this meant a lot to Thor. He saw it as his day and ... he's having trouble seeing anything else right now. He doesn't mean to be insensitive."

Loki froze for a moment there, wondering what Balder had heard. But searching his face revealed nothing, and the boy did not keep secrets.

"I'm sure he'll be happy to owe you a few favors later on. Just endure it for now. I'm right here if you need me, and Sif and the Warriors Three as well."

Mentioning Sif and the Warriors Three was somewhat like mentioning that he had bookkeepers at his disposal. They had their uses but this was not one of them. And as for explaining to Balder that they were not brothers, that Loki was dark ... How could he? He would only be a black stain upon the presence of Balder the Pure. 

Balder put a flipper on Loki's shoulder lightly, just weighty enough to register, then nodded at him and left him be. Loki glanced over his shoulder at where Frigga stroked Odin's paw and could stand the sight no more. He stalked from the room.

The world receded from existence again as he walked the familiar halls, his body finding its way on its own. His thoughts tumbled over themselves without form. He suddenly remembered a lecture Odin had given the three of them once on what it meant to be a king.

"A king is a slave to the people," Odin said, "He bears the entire weight of the realm on his shoulders. He takes no vacations and may never be idle. He wakes early in the morning and goes to bed late to sleep a sleep that might be interrupted by more pressing concerns. He lives to read and listen and discuss often apparently trivial things that nonetheless cost lives and livelihoods. He is never free from the weight of the crown or the chains of the throne, for all the people of Asgard depend on him."

Balder had nodded along solemnly. He probably took it more to heart than any of them; he lived for the people of Asgard though he was far too easily influenced by others' opinions to be king. Loki was not surprised by a single word. He had stood at his father's side and watched him work day in and day out. He knew how tedious and demanding the job of ruler was and how it was carried out. But Thor simply looked bored. To him, being king was not about being below Asgard, supporting it, but being above, looking down on all his subjects as they looked up and worshiped him.

Thinking back on that speech Loki wondered how Odin could ever have thought Thor worthy for the throne. Maybe he hadn't. Maybe he had meant what he said when they were just kittens before Balder was even born. Maybe they were both born to be kings. Maybe he intended for Loki to do the work and for Thor to do what he did best, take all the attention while not lifting a single claw to help anyone. Perhaps he should feel better at the idea that Thor was intended only as a puppet king, but he felt like a puppet himself, just the one that wouldn't be having orgies on the throne.

 _And Thor would,_ Loki thought. Thor had no respect, no appreciation for the position that was going to be handed to him. He felt entitled to it simply by his birth, as though coming out of the right womb was the only thing of consequence he need do in his entire life--

But it was true, wasn't it? Everyone loved Thor. Everyone loved Balder. They shone like the sun because of what they were, born to legendaries, born to be legends themselves. Laufey was a king but no legendary, and even if he were he would still be dark.

Ha. Dark. That was the new term, the term of peace and truce. The old warriors still called them by their old name: evil.

And that was what he was. That was what he always was, he could see that now. He could pass it off as mischief but hadn't he sabotaged his own brother ("brother") just now? Without even a pang of guilt? No, not with guilt but with glee. If anyone had asked him he would have said he loved Thor more than anyone. Wasn't that hopelessly sad?

 _I obviously don't love Thor,_ Loki thought. _And Balder even less. How could I love Odin now, knowing that he lied to me, knowing how he planned to use me?_

Frigga he might love, though she too was a liar. But any love was in her nature, not his. She couldn't possibly inspire hate.

And what of Asgard? Hadn't he done this for her? Hadn't he risked Odin's wrath and his own life to prove that Thor was unworthy of her? Didn't he love this place?

Loki stopped and looked around. Everything gleamed golden, bright. His dark blue face reflected and distorted in the grand columns of generations of Asgardians.

He would never love this place, live for this place the way Balder did. And even if he did love it--

The light streamed through the high windows in curtains of white.

\--it was a place of light. A place he would never belong.

Loki paused a long moment, feeling the sun on his fur one last time. Then he stepped through the passages between worlds and away.

**Author's Note:**

> For reference - 
> 
> Odin - [Raikou](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Raikou)  
> Frigga - [Cresselia](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Cresselia)  
> Thor - [Luxray](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Luxray)  
> Loki - [Absol](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Absol)  
> Balder - [Ampharos](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ampharos)  
> Volstagg - [Snorlax](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Snorlax)  
> Fandral - [Farfetch'd](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Farfetch%27d)  
> Hogun - [Gallade](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Gallade)  
> Sif - [Dewott](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Dewott)  
> Heimdall - [Palkia](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Palkia)  
> Laufey - [Zoroark](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Zoroark)
> 
> I chose these mostly by behavior, otherwise Loki would have been a zoroark since they can cast illusions. I also thought it was important that Odin, Frigga, and Heimdall be legendaries, and I leaned toward a water pokemon for Sif so she could match her brother. And Farfetch'd is simply the best. No one will convince me otherwise.


End file.
